No Longer Innocent
by cradleman
Summary: A young woman's life is forever changed after meeting one of Gotham's most maniacal criminals late one night.


Jennifer Anderson let out a breath of frosty air as she hurried down the sidewalk. She looked around rapidly, as if she was scared that something was going to happen to her. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and concentrated on where she was going. She looked around again, making sure yet again that she was the only one in sight. It felt weird to her, being out this late. Usually, she tried to be in bed by ten o'clock, but here she was on the coldest night of the year out walking at midnight. _And why exactly am I here?_ she thought. _It's all because of that man. I should be angry at him for who he is, what he's done. But, I'm not. _As she continued walking toward her destination, she let her thoughts drift back to where it all began two short weeks ago.

"Jenny," a voice boomed throughout her house, "can you do something for your daddy?"

"Of course, Dad. What is it?"

"I haven't been feeling well today, but we need some groceries from the store. Would you mind getting them for me?"

"No, I don't mind. Do you have the list on you?"

"It's right here. Don't forget, the milk should be 2 percent, not skim. Also, double check the eggs, last time a couple were cracked already."

"Yes, sir. Anything else?"

"Nope. Just make sure you hurry back after you get the food, you know how dangerous the streets of Gotham can be at night. Batman may be a force for good, but not even he can protect us all."

"You know I will, Daddy. I will see you in a little bit. I love you!"

"I love you too, Jenny."

With these remarks, Jennifer Anderson hurried out the door and into a new direction in her life that she never could have imagined. The grocery trip went fine, but on her way back, something happened. She was walking home when she thought she heard something move behind her. She turned her head to look, but there was nothing there. _Come on girl, get a hold of yourself. You're gonna make yourself go nuts imagining stuff at this time of night. _She turned her head back around and screamed. There he was, standing there with that twisted grin on his face. She screamed and turned to run, but he just cackled and grabbed her by the shoulder.

"I don't recommend that. Running won't get you anywhere but six feet under, my dear. I do prefer it doesn't come to that. You're really quite lovely, and I could use a good woman like you. What do you say, sweetheart?"

"I say you should take your crap and shove it!"

"Ohhahaha! Temper, Temper! You should know better than to insult your savior."

"You're no savior! I know who you are!"

"Do you now? Well then, you also know what will happen to you if you don't do what I say. Your precious little Daddy will be the first one to feel my wrath. Then maybe your brother? Or, how about dear old mum? Hahahahaha! You'll do what I ask, there is no doubt of that."

"You're insane!"

"Delightfully so! And soon, if all goes according to plan, you'll be just as insane as me!"

"Never! What do you want with me anyway?"

"What is it with women and never letting anyone have some fun? Always straight to business. But I'll go ahead and tell you. You see, these days, thanks to the Batman, my reputation has become somewhat, oh how do you say it, disfigured. Now, I can't go anywhere and have some fun without having someone scream or trying to arrest me. What I need is a voice of reason, someone out in the professional world promoting my cause. That's where you come in. Your job will be to give me good PR and turn the city of Gotham against Batman."

"But I have no credentials; no one would have any reason to believe me."

"Actually, you will. I chose you for a specific reason. You bear a very striking resemblance to a certain former acquaintance of mine. A Dr. Harleen Quinzell, whom you might have heard of for her 'work' on the inmates at Arkham."

"I've heard of her, but she's been missing for over a week."

"And by missing, of course, you mean dead."

"I do?"

"Duh! I'd planned on just using her in order to get some better publicity but unfortunately she couldn't take the strain of the 'conditioning' so to speak. It was so sad, she was beautiful and so intelligent, but she tried to attack me and you know I couldn't have that. But with you, I know it will work. All it will take is a little better 'conditioning.' After that, I'll dye your hair and train you how to speak just as she did. The gullible mass of humanity will eat it up!"

"I'll never do that, you madman! You're evil!"

"Yes, you will. And you will love every second! Well, eventually." And with these words, his eye gave a twinkle and he let loose a wicked laugh that sent chills down her spine.

That night, she began her conditioning, and watched him commit crime after crime. She vomited as she watched a wino convulse in a side alley, with a sickly smile forever frozen on his dead face. She watched in horror as he murdered an old lady, electrocuted with one shake of the hand. She watched murder after murder, and the whole time, the only thing Jennifer could hear was that laughter; that evil, deranged, invasive laughter. He finally let her go home at one in the morning, warning her to keep quiet unless she wanted something bad to happen. He gave her a story to give to her parents about where she had been, and then vanished with instructions on where to meet him the next night.

Every night that week she snuck out at midnight to meet him, never really wanting to go, but always afraid for her family's lives. The depravity that she was exposed to grew and grew each night. The second night she thought she heard the sound of a cape nearby, prayed that it was Batman. However, when she turned she realized it was just a piece of cloth hanging off of a nearby fence. As the week progressed, she began to become aware of a terrible truth. Jennifer was becoming numb to the violence he inflicted on other people. The first night, she wondered whose grandmother was never coming home. The second night she cried over a businessman's senseless death; and how his family would have no one to take care of them. Now though, at the end of the week, she realized she didn't care at all about the young woman lying in the back room of a shop with her throat slit open. The pain, the death, the suffering all no longer affected her. But it got worse, for by the end of the second week of watching him murder countless people, torture others, and destroy lives she came to an even more terrible realization.

_OH MY GOD! I am beginning to need this. When I go home during the day, it's as if I can hardly wait anymore 'til nightfall. I can't wait to see his face, where before the very sight of that smiling mockery would send chills right to my heart. God, why? What is wrong with me? Am I so desensitized that I don't even care anymore? _She repeated this prayer over and over the final night, however, her prayer seemed to fall on deaf ears, and strengthened her resolve to tell him she was ready.

As she walked down the street during this frigid night, she was now on her way to the meeting place to tell him. Jennifer blinked and looked around again, but it wasn't a criminal she feared now. No, she feared the Batman. Just thinking about him had once made her feel safe, now she hated the very thought of him. She knew she was almost there, but still shivered, some because of the cold but mostly because of the thought of Batman finding her. Just then, she saw the meeting place. When she got there, she stammered, but managed to get out "I. . . I think, I think I'm ready. Ready to, you know, do what you asked." His wicked smile grew even bigger, and she figured he would give her a test to prove her loyalty.

What she didn't realize, however, was what he would require her to do to prove she was ready. She expected to cry at this demand, but found no tears would flow. She wanted to be angry, upset, even scared. However, the only emotion she could find came in the form of a wicked laughter; laughter that rang through the streets louder and creepier than even his. Not only did she need this life, she now found it funny. Jennifer laughed once more; then marched out to do his bidding as soon as morning came.

Usually when she came back home, she sneaked back in so that her family wouldn't know of her nightly activities. This time however, she waited on the front porch until she knew her family would be at the breakfast table. Then Jennifer opened the door and marched into the kitchen, where her dad would be enjoying his Frosted Flakes and her mom would be fixing eggs for her brother. When the door opened, her dad looked up in shock.

"Jenny? Why were you outside? Where have you been?"

"I have a confession to make, Dad. The last two weeks I've been sneaking out at night. That night when you sent me to the store, I met someone. A man, a man with more power and wealth than you could ever imagine. I've been seeing him each night since then, and I love his way of life. Now I can't go a single day without that it. To prove that I was ready, though, he asked me to do a favor for him."

"WHAT?" Jennifer's father roared. "WHO IS THIS MAN? I'LL BREAK HIM IN TWO FOR THIS!"

"No, Dad, you won't." She held out his wanted photo, as her dad collapsed back into his chair from the shock, tears running from his eyes.

"But, Jennifer, we raised you better than this! We brought you to church! We taught you the difference between right and wrong!"

"Did you? Did you indeed? Or did you just brainwash me into thinking you were right? I guess we'll never know for sure. I do know however, that I can't leave with you knowing this." She brought her right hand from behind her back and pointed it at her father, then pulled the trigger. Her mom screamed, and her little brother cried, while her father merely let a sad expression crawl over his face. Two seconds later he looked up at the point of a flag that was sticking out of the gun, with the word "BANG" on the cloth. His expression changed to that of nervous laughter and he started to sit back and relax when Jennifer pulled the trigger once more. The point went straight into his heart, injecting the venom directly. Mr. Anderson's face went rigid; the maniacal smile spread over his now dead features. Jennifer dropped the gun, and pulled two darts out of her pocket. The first was thrown toward her brother as he tried to run out the back door, and it caught him right between the shoulder blades. He went down, with the same smile on his face as their father's. Jennifer turned toward her mother, and saw that she was lying on the floor, unmoving. She knelt on the floor, feeling for a pulse and saw that there was none. She let out another wicked laugh, and then heard one far more familiar join in. She looked up as he walked in, laughing and clapping.

"Now, my dear, you are indeed ready for the big time."

That night, the news described the horrific triple homicide at Jennifer's house, and announced that the police assumed Jennifer to be dead. Reported the next week, though with much less fanfare, was the reappearance of Dr. Harleen Quinzell. Apparently, the newsman reported, she had just been on a private vacation in order to sort out her notes taken at Arkham. He also mentioned that she would be making an appearance that night on Ian Peak's nightly news telecast.

"Good Evening, this is Ian Peak, and you are watching Gotham's premiere nightly newscast. Tonight, we have with us one of Gotham's most respected criminal psychologists, Dr. Harleen Quinzell. Dr. Quinzell, this morning you said that on your vacation these last few weeks, you had found out several interesting discoveries that you'd like to share tonight. May I ask you what you discovered?"

"While I was at Arkham, I got permission to do brain scans each day of certain patients. What I discovered shocked me, and was the reason for my sudden departure. You see, when I looked at the brain activity of these so called criminals, I realized that in reality they aren't doing anything wrong. It's not so much a matter of right and wrong as it is of where the most brain activity is centered. Most of society has their brain activity centered in a particular part of their brain, but all in all it only takes up only about 10% of the area of your brain. Men who society considers criminals, though, just have a different center of activity for their brains. So in reality, they aren't evil or insane, they just think differently than we do.

"To discriminate them on the basis of how they think is no different than forcing people with a skin color other than white to lead a different life than white people because some racists believe them to be inferior. In fact, one of the few men in Gotham who is actually insane may be the Batman himself. It seems as if he captures these people just because they think and act differently than he does. We all laud him, but in reality he's probably nothing more than a bigoted madman."

All night, she and the Peak went at it, with him calling criminals evil, and Jennifer calling them "different." He defended Batman; she tore him down and ridiculed him as insane. When the show was over, she couldn't wait to see _him _again. Jennifer went their meeting place, making sure to take a circuitous route so that no one could follow her. As she got there, she heard his cackling laugh, saw that smile. Once hideous to her, now she felt lost without seeing it. She knew he had driven her insane, but she didn't care. She didn't care because she also knew something else; she knew that she loved him. She whispered in the dark, "Evening, Mr. J."


End file.
